A committee of the Board of Higher Education has endorsed a student fee increase at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake.
The $180 yearly fee will allow LRSC students to use a proposed activity and recreation center. That center is being proposed by the Devils Lake Park Board. College president Dr. Doug Darling told the Budget and Finance Committee the college was approached by the park board, who was hoping the college students would be interested in membership at the center.
"We had the park board present the plans to the Student Senate and the Student Body," Darling said. "The Student Senate surveyed the student body. And based on those results, the Student Senate voted to support assssing themselves a fee."
Darling said the students would all be members of the facility, if and when it is built. He said the park board is proposing a sales tax increase to fund the construction – and voters will decide that in a March 13th election.
LRSC student body president Adrianna Bibeau said when the students were surveyed, more than 85 percent of them supported the fee.
"All members of the Student Senate believe it is a good thing for Lake Region," Bibeau told the Committee.
The fees will not be charged until voters approve the center. It will be located next to the Lake Region campus – and Darling said the basketball team and volleyball teams will use the center as their home court.
The full Board of Higher Education will look at this at its next meeting.
